Yo- family

The amount of craziness that has occurred in the past week is mind boggling. Here I am sitting in a four story library in the middle of nowhere as a District Leader in Urbana, Maryland. Who would have thought I'd be living in the countryside of Maryland anytime of my life? Gee Wiz my life is insane!

For starters, our apartment is above Black Dragon Tattoo, a hip tattoo crazy loud kind of scary actually terrifying establishment. This means at least we never have a dull moment music wise, seemingly every minute we're in the apartment. Babylon incarnate down there, holy cow :D The apartment itself is wonderful though, making life better one bity at a time.

Elder Willis is a Bountiful, Utah native, born and raised, and has been in the mission three months. He's a bit shorter than me, is incredibly, sometimes too much so, nice, quite timid, and sometimes not too sure of himself. By all means he is a pleasant companion to have around, especially with all of these new responsibilities as a District Leader.

Oh boy. The joys of being a District Leader. Pretty much I'm the person they report their goals and actuals in key indicators(.....numbers......) and carry them over top the Zone Leaders. I'm not sure you could pick up my enthusiasm there...probably because there isn't any :) For that! The other part of being a District Leader is more of the Leader part. Having responsibility with leading others to literally become better human beings in the sight of God is kind of an enormous task. I love it though! Talking with people is and always will be one of my strong suits, and I guess leadership fits right in! Hopefully as time goes on I'll become greater friends with them all. Of course they'll never be better friends than all of you ;)

For the first time in my life, I witnessed an all out freezing rain storm. Actually, I was in the freezing rain storm. For those not familiar with these, I wasn't until it was too late, rain falls down, immediately becomes ice wherever it lands, and stays ice until you go inside. I walked into a member's house yesterday a literal popsicle. With every creak and hinge of an arm, ice sheets cracked apart showering the perfected wood floor around me. Church was cancelled, but the Harris family got permission from the Bishop to have Sacrament Meeting in their home. I'd never experienced partaking the Sacrament and having Church with a few families in a home before. There is definitely a different feel to it. Luckily, the empowering reality of partaking of the Savior's Atonement lost no savor, nor renewal.

I find that even as a missionary who's sole purpose is to invite and testify of Christ, I still forget about what he has done for me. There are no dead ends, there are no last chances. Only through Jesus Christ can we be made whole. Forgiveness and salvation are right at our doorstep. All we need to do is open our hearts to the healing power of Jesus Christ.

I love you all and thank God everyday for the effect you've all had on my life (shout out to Broadneck family <3)

xoxo

Elder Burgess

ATTENTION! I'm getting transferred this Wednesday to Urbana Ward near Frederick, Maryland as District Leader. It's on the other side of Maryland, out in the hilly Western part, fairly close to West Virginia I think. It'll be a big change for me since Broadneck Ward here in Arnold has been all I've known on my mission. Poor Elder Hinkle will be lost in the poorly mapped roads here hehehehe

Elder Van De Graaff (remember him?) will be my Zone Leader that I'll be reporting to.   .....there is no escape

:)

The snow came and the snow destrooyyyed us here! All week the ground was covered in inches on inches of either slush or pure ice, there really wasn't any normal snow. Friday was nine degrees. That was great.

Because of the snow, our transportation was very limited. We ended up trekking to the close neighborhoods around us, shoveling all the drive ways we came across, which was no easy task. A few people thanked us, but, for the most part, our service went unnoticed. For me, unnoticed acts of service stand out far brighter than those that are praised and recognized. There's something about pure, selfless acts of kindness that warms the soul even in nine degree weather. I think that's how the Savior was able to wade through the unimaginable muck of adversity he faced. He literally helped ever person who will, has, or does live on the Earth. If he could do that much, the least I can do is get my giant ears a little frosty :)

I went on my last exchange in the Annapolis Zone over in good ol' Severna Park one last time with Elder Saunders. Every appointment fell through and every house we went to yielded no response. We traveled by way of bus all over the place, which was full of a wide variety of Maryland hoodlums and street dwellers (I fit into that category too hehe). The ground breaking and eye-opening conversations I have with those far less privileged with things of the world than me shocks me, despite having those experiences everyday. One guy we met had traveled down from the Canadian border through hitch hiking and buses. He had no home, no family, no money, and no idea where to go in life. We attempted to point him in a good direction, but he replied, "God's leading me in his direction."

I'll let the irony simmer there for a bit.

A Book of Mormon and prayer later, Frank was back on his way. He really was a pleasant man. Also the closest look alike to a Viking I think I'll ever see.

Broadneck Ward has been my home away from home. I'll truly miss this place and the friendships I've made. The Lord has placed a new Season of the Elder Burgess Show on the Horizon, just waiting for me to grab it.

xoxo

Elder Burgess

P.S. I'll let you know my new address next week. PLEASE DON'T SEND ANYTHING TO MY ARNOLD ADDRESS. <3